Various methods have been employed in the past to produce decorative visual images in the interior of glass articles, and these methods have been described in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.; 2,646,380; 2,917,856; 2,065,406; 1,506,677; 58,410 and 2,511,552, as well as in British Pat. No. 5146 (Richardson--1879).
Ornamental inscription and designs of a degree of rough line texture has been earlier painted on cores which formed the interior of glass articles and an example of such an earlier sculpture is "Vase with Fish" by Orrefors, Sweden, circa 1947.
It is further known from Charlton, U.S. Pat. No. 2,980,533 to decorate bodies using translucent decals, which are embedded in a surface glaze. Where the body so decorated is transparent, it will be possible to view the surface decoration from the reverse side of the body over a reasonably wide angle of view, provided that the body is not shaped whereby it will function as a lens. Where the body is shaped whereby it will function as a lens, which is to say where it has an arcuately formed surface, the angle of view of the surface image, when viewed from the reverse face thereof, will be restricted, whereby only a small portion of the image, which is that portion locating close to a view line which is substantially normal to both reverse and obverse surfaces of the body, will be seen. On each angular side of such view line, the image will be perceived as being highly distorted, and as the angle of sight increases still further, internal reflection will occur whereby the image will not be seen.
Our invention provides for an improved method of producing a fine textured, mechanically reproducible photographic image in the interior of a transparent or translucent body of glass and results in the production of the sculptured glass article of the invention with an interior design of a higher degree of virtuosity, resolution and rendition than has been possible using the methods or processes of the prior art.